Gary Bettenhausen wheeled Willie Davis' #24 to victory at Terre Haute.
The victory was the seventh on the local clay oval for the popular Bettenhausen, but he was the first to admit the race belonged to Kinser until Steve Cannon spun out coming off the fourth turn and Rich Vogler and Sam Sessions lazily slid into his car or the wall.
Kinser avoided the scramble, but when the yellow was displayed he surrendered his straightaway lead, leaving Bettenhausen only two car lengths back. Between the two was Greg Leffler, who was a lap down to Kinser.
“On the restart, coming out of the fourth turn, I kept looking at Greg, wondering why he wasn’t speeding up, Bettenhausen said later. “I kept thinking, ‘For a man in second, you’re sure not driving hard’ I kept looking at him, trying to jump ahead of him at the green; I didn’t want anybody to say, ‘He’s cheating.’”
“But I kept looking at him, watching where he was. One time I looked over at him and he just shrugged.”
Slow to get the message, Leffler was not battling for the top prize (“I thought I’d passed him,” Bettenhausen mused), the Monrovia, Ind., driver punched his throttle with Kinser taking the green.
They battled wheel-to-wheel for the 39th and 40th laps with Bettenhausen finding the low road to his liking while Kinser tried to keep his success out by the fence.
It took USAC officials several seconds to declare Bettenhausen the winner, and he and Kinser were both driving their sprinters toward the spontaneous victory lane on the track near the finish line.
When USAC officials started pointing towards the Willie Davis car as the winner, Sheldon Kinser could be seen pounding his fists on the steering wheel as he pulled into the pit area. A sure victory only minutes before was now defeat.
It was a heartbreaking ending for Kinser who led the first 10 circuits before Lee Osborne took command until the 27th lap when Kinser regained the top spot that he held until that decisive and final lap.
The feature had the makings of a thriller from the beginning with anyone of three different races developing at different locations on the track.
Kinser, Osborne and the afternoon’s fastest qualifier, Bruce Walkup, battled for 34 laps before the Sullivan, Ind., driver slowed with mechanical problems.
Farther back Bettenhausen was making his move to the lead pack with a spirited battle in a pack of sprinters that included Jimmy Caruthers, Tom Bigelow, Rollie Beale and Steve Cannon.
The victory marked the return of Bettenhausen in the Willie Davis sprinter after the pair split following Bettenhausen’s champ dirt accident at Syracuse on July 4 of last year.
Bettenhausen remarked following the win that he has always felt extra good about his win here and that he and his crew used the same tire, gear and chassis setup Sunday that he’s used for his six other victories.
Results –
1. Gary Bettenhausen
2. Sheldon Kinser
3. Tom Bigelow
4. Lee Osborne
5. Jimmy Caruthers
6. Chuck Gurney
7. Rollie Beale
8. Larry Dickson
9. Steve Cannon
10.Bill Puterbaugh
11.Bruce Walkup
12.Mike Schiesel
13.Sam Sessions
14.Greg Leffler
15.Joe Saldana
16.Dave Gable
17.Rich Vogler
18.Larry Rice
19.Bill Cassella
20.Pancho Carter
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